“I definitely feel more comfortable out there,” said Fitzpatrick, who currently leads the Crimson with 325 rushing yards this season. “I feel like I have the trust of my teammates out there. Our timing is down.”

Pendergast was very complimentary of Fitzpatrick’s continued efforts in place of senior captain Neil Rose, who did not play on Saturday because of a nagging sciatic nerve problem.

“Fitzpatrick is an outstanding quarterback,” Pendergast said. “They didn’t miss a beat when Rose went down.”

Spreading the Wealth

A major reason for Fitzpatrick’s success this season has been the bevy of playmakers that he has at his disposal.

“It makes it a lot easier to put the ball in great athletes’ hands and let them take care of it,” said Fitzpatrick, who completed three or more passes to four different receivers in Saturday’s game.

With opposing defenses keying primarily on stud wideout Carl Morris and the emerging Rodney Byrnes, other players have found themselves with more room to work with and Murphy said “it’s a necessity” to get big contributions from them.

Sophomore Brian Edwards—who caught his first collegiate pass last weekend at Lehigh—certainly did his part. He opened the scoring with a 23-yard touchdown catch early in the first quarter and finished with three catches for 62 yards.

Junior Kyle Cremarosa had a nearly identical day, hauling in three passes for 63 yards and a sensational 27-yard touchdown catch on a pass that was tipped by a Cornell defender.

“It was the first start for Brian Edwards, and he played really well,” Fitzpatrick said. “He’s a really great athlete. Same thing with Kyle Cremarosa, with that touchdown catch in the end zone.”

Pendergast certainly realizes what an asset a deep receiving corps has been for Harvard.

“You can’t sit here and game plan against one player,” he said. “They have a lot of weapons, and they’ve done a great job with the weapons they have.”

—Staff writer Jon Paul Morosi can be reached at morosi@fas.harvard.edu.